The Dragon Age community is (given) a bunch of tools

Ever since BioWare released the Neverwinter Nights toolset in 2002, they've brazenly put the power of creation in their community's hands, and have never looked back. BioWare is following that fine tradition by revealing details on their upcoming Dragon Age: Origins toolset at PAX this Sunday. Here's some bulletpoints to tantalize, however:

Create Original Adventures -- Using the rich set of Dragon Age assets and locations as starting blocks, users can modify these stunning areas by adding new quests, characters and scripting to craft their own adventures, fate-defining conversations and cut-scenes. [Notably less Tolkein-y, let's hope. - ed.]

Penny Arcade Expo – Seattle, Washington (August 29, 2008) – Leading video game developer BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that it will continue in the studio’s long tradition of delivering powerful content-creations to the gaming community by releasing the Dragon Age™ Toolset. BioWare will be presenting the Dragon Age™ Toolset at the Penny Arcade Expo in the Washington State Convention & Trade Center today through Sunday. Designed specifically for the highly-anticipated Role-playing PC game Dragon Age™: Origins, the Dragon Age Toolset provides players with developer-grade tools that will allow them to produce their own content.

Attendees of the Penny Arcade Expo will be the first ever to see the new toolset in action as BioWare will provide a live demonstration of some of its exciting features and capabilities. The Dragon Age Toolset will be part of a stage demonstration during the Penny Arcade Expo at 1:30pm, August 31, on the main stage at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle, Washington. Key features include:

Create Original Adventures – Using the rich set of Dragon Age assets and locations as starting blocks, users can modify these stunning areas by adding new quests, characters and scripting to craft their own adventures, fate-defining conversations and cut-scenes.

Content Creators Community – BioWare plans to have a dedicated community area online where content creators can share content easily and get content updates for the toolset.

On-Going Toolset Content Updates – BioWare plans to release additional assets and features for the toolset in the future, allowing for expanded creation of new areas.

BioWare has a long history of delivering powerful content-creation tools and support to its community. In 2002, the studio released a Toolkit for the ever popular Neverwinter Nights™ which has allowed fans to create over 5,000 adventure modules of their own design, the most fan-created content in BioWare’s history. Fans have not only created stand-alone adventures with the trailblazing Neverwinter Nights toolset, they still continue to create modules, five years after its original release and have crafted thousands of completely new monsters, hundreds of thousands of in-game objects (eg. weapons, armor, food, special effects, building facades, etc.) and dozens of worlds.

For more information about Dragon Age: Origins, the latest updates, or to join BioWare’s Dragon Age community, visit www.dragonage.com.